MEDIA RELEASE/Tickford Racing – Photo: Supplied

Tickford Racing has signed reigning Dunlop Super2 Series champion Declan Fraser for the 2023 Supercars Championship season, where the 22-year old will take the wheel of the Tradie Ford Mustang for his first full season at the top level of Australian motorsport.

The Mackay native comes to Tickford after a pair of years in the Dunlop Super2 Series, having scored the2022 series crown on the back of four wins and four poles in the 11-race campaign. Fraser also made hisSupercars and Bathurst 1000 debut in 2022, driving a wildcard entry with Triple Eight Race Engineering to an impressive eighth-place finish in the Great Race.

“It’s a pretty special feeling,” Fraser said of the news. “At the end of the Super2 season we didn’t really know where we were heading for 2023, so to get the call from Tim and everyone was pretty exciting. Getting from Super2 to the main game is a really tough step to make, especially from a financial perspective, so to have Tim and the team at Tickford Racing offer me this drive on performance is really special. It shows that Super2 is a great platform to prepare young drivers for the main game, and I’m really looking forward to the opportunity. It’s awesome to be representing Tradie as well, I’ve actually done four years of apprenticeship and have my tradesman’s certificate as an electrician. It’s a funny coincidence, but really cool to partner up with such a fun brand in Tradie, I can’t wait to get started.”

Earlier….

Tickford announces Jake Kostecki split

Tickford Racing has confirmed that Jake Kostecki will not return with the team for the coming Supercars season.

Kostecki joined the Campbellfield-based team from Matt Stone Racing last year.

The Perth-born driver was one of two drivers — along with Thomas Randle — to join Tickford in 2022.

Kostecki, 22, scored top 10s in Perth, Darwin and New Zealand aboard his TRADIE Ford.

However, he was also involved in a number of incidents, and crashed out of the last race in Adelaide.

That race proved to be his final start with Tickford.

It’s the second time Tickford has made an off-season change in three years

Tickford parted ways with Lee Holdsworth in January 2021 when the team downscaled to three cars.

Kostecki made his Supercars debut as a teenager alongside cousin Brodie in the 2019 enduros.

He earned a drive with MSR in the team’s SuperLite programme for 2020 before signing on for a full-time campaign in 2021.

That paved the way for a multi-year deal with Tickford, which would ultimately last one season.

In a statement, Tickford said it will announce a replacement driver “in due course”.

“Tickford Racing and driver Jake Kostecki have decided to part ways by mutual agreement and will not continue with their partnership in the 2023 Supercars Championship season,” the statement reads.

“Tickford wishes Jake well in his future endeavours.

 

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